Posts by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
(DIR) Post #B2XENWv2Xc4ogDD7Pk by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-22T06:43:48Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #SongsAndSagasWhat does a lightweight BRP look like for a modern Cthulhu game? It looks a lot like *Cthulhu Unleashed.* Let's ask a detective for some help.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/22+-+Cthulhu+Unleashed
(DIR) Post #B2ZKDnWmvIGTKvWsvA by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-23T06:58:41Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #SweatyAndBreathlessIt's not often I get to tinker with a game which would be perfect for tentacle porn, but here we are. Your ero game needs have been fulfilled. It's really quite good.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/23+-+Sweaty+and+Breathless
(DIR) Post #B2bJnI7jRtdOj25ehU by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-24T06:03:19Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #WeHaveThatDungeonGameAtHomeWhen you tell mom that you want that dungeon game, and she tells you that you have that dungeon game at home, what do you actually have at home? You have this.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/24+-+We+Have+That+Dungeon+Game+At+Home
(DIR) Post #B2eoEz9crpbLPvWVUG by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-25T07:41:07Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #ParanoiaFiveClonesFromAlphaComplexI may have just experienced my favorite version of the Paranoia RPG rules, and it's not even an RPG. How does adventure wargaming work here? Let's find out.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/25+-+Paranoia+-+Five+Clones+From+Alpha+Complex
(DIR) Post #B2fXcWggqxeQ15aWjA by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-26T06:57:06Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #Tribe8Return with me to post-apocalyptic Montreal, Canada, with the new Forged in the Dark version of Tribe 8.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/26+-+Tribe+8+-+Tribes+in+the+Dark
(DIR) Post #B2fXr7aGTDFKVEXfrE by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-26T06:59:44Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #Tribe8Return with me to post-apocalyptic Montreal, Canada, with the new Forged in the Dark version of Tribe 8.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/26+-+Tribe+8+-+Tribes+in+the+Dark
(DIR) Post #B2hUPC8G3Tr4xEM0mG by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-27T05:30:29Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #WushuForExaltedExalted is a big, beefy, hungus monster of a setting and a game's text. But what if someone used one of the most open, freeform mechanical systems as its spine?https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/27+-+Wushu+for+Exalted
(DIR) Post #B2hVXiWBd2lHfVAr3o by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-27T05:43:08Z
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@tezrak.bsky.social They're not actually obligated to, of course. They can have their reasons and keep them to themselves.The ability to exercise free will is wonderful. Or possibly, they think you're the problem and they don't want to talk to you about it.Regardless, these things happen. You play with the people you have.
(DIR) Post #B2hVzqx5rgXTvzAy80 by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-27T05:48:17Z
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@jollysea The people suggesting that a d20 is cooler than 2d6 are clearly insane and should be rejected out of hand, not just from the discussion, but from society.But more seriously, only slightly—a single d20 is ridiculously more swingy and less pleasant to use. If I wanted that much randomness in my resolution, I would probably just go do something which is more akin to gambling.
(DIR) Post #B2hWBLhTsshcU2M4HY by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-27T05:50:17Z
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@crabsoft @jollysea You know what? I can respect that, even if I don't agree with it. Here's a further question: is it the fast addition that gives you the problem, or the multiple visual impacts? Do you have the same problem reading Ironsworn-style dice, which is rolling a d6 and adding it to a fairly static number and then comparing that outcome with a couple of d10s to see if it's over or under? Do you have the same problem with dice pools, where you roll multiple of the same kind of die and compare them to a target number?
(DIR) Post #B2jigxWmsbqoXx71LE by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-28T07:19:58Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #Exalted3eLook, we all know how I feel about super crunchy systems, and Exalted 3e is exactly that. So let's get stuck in and put together the worst kind of bureaucrat.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/28+-+Exalted+3e
(DIR) Post #B2jmLHBLWcGiwt023E by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-28T08:00:51Z
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@senchawizard You do not. No one needs a book on being a GM.Being a good GM consists of two things, and they both fit in one sentence:1. Show up on time when you say you'll show up.2. Pay attention to what the players say that they want and give them more of that.That's it. That's all you have to do. Everything else is up to your personal style.And that's if you and your group decide you need a GM at all. There are tons of GM-less games, which are wonderful and give everybody at the table a say in building the world as you go.But if you do those two things, you'll be a great GM. Of course, if you do those two things, you'll be a great player.That's all it takes.
(DIR) Post #B2jmgbzNMPnTYsZeZU by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-28T08:04:26Z
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@mrundkvist @crabsoft It really depends on what the system pretends to be simulating. Most of the heavy rules crunch RPG design is attempting to be a physics engine, which is a fool's errand.Trying to simulate physics with a high-speed computational platform is hard enough that there are specialized several hundred thousand lines of code designed for a machine that can think a lot faster than a human being to do. That still falls short.It doesn't matter how many pages fit in the book, you're not going to simulate physics. Yet, they keep trying.But there are other things to simulate. Some mechanical systems attempt to simulate the structure of stories via mechanical aids, and those can actually be quite small because when you're talking about fictive narrative space, the rules can be relatively abstract. The interpretation engine is the human brain, and we're used to telling stories to one another.Rules-minimal systems tend to be narrativist because narrative rules are simpler to express.
(DIR) Post #B2lfqJhJuXRYMhjGgC by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-29T05:57:29Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #MysteryFleshPitProbably one of the most fun, modern, satirical settings I've had the pleasure of reading, but mechanically, I'm of two minds. Join me in the Mystery Flesh Pit.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/29+-+Mystery+Flesh+Pit+National+Park+-+The+RPG
(DIR) Post #B2nuEohW54LL90JkLg by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-30T07:48:12Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #ChoirOfFleshA little bit solo, a little bit group, a little bit Cronenberg nightmare body horror, a little bit alternate historical, 1000 AD France. Choir of Flesh has a lot of things going on.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/30+-+Choir+of+Flesh
(DIR) Post #B2prm7LRs9Deyg6QXg by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-31T06:30:02Z
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#TTRPG #CharacterCreationChallenge #AlienRPGClosing out *Character Creation Challenge 2026* with one of the best game releases of the year. It's *Alien: The RPG - Evolved Edition*. Corporate scientists have all the fun.https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Character+Creation+Challenge/2026/31+-+Alien+the+RPG+Evolved+Edition
(DIR) Post #B2pstqxAnd2wPY061g by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-31T06:42:35Z
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@deinol You know my instantaneous thought about the least complicated way to do this would be as an underlying grid of hex cells into which you could inject a piece of information, and each of the lines out of it to a neighbor has a temporal cost in propagation. Usually, it is a week because there are common couriers, but in some areas, in some conditions, you could make that edge take more time to propagate. Then you just treat it like a cellular automata where a process goes over and propagates the information across edges appropriately on, say, a virtual daily schedule.The cunning part would be to make the interface for the user side/player side effectively a wiki. Each hex has its own page, and players could only see what hexes they have a presence in because those are the only pages they have read access to.It would be a little bit of a pain in the ass to juggle access permissions, but overall I think it would be easier than trying to build a more complicated interface mechanism.
(DIR) Post #B2ptNQt0HVRSFi9f9M by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-01-31T06:47:58Z
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@vdonnut Because they want a mechanical mechanism by which their character can be differentiated from themselves when it comes to being persuasive.It's why persuasion is so often a skill in high-density skill systems, even in highly narrative, trait-driven systems that don't have skill systems as such. You see a lot of people take something like "lies convincingly" as a trait because they want to be able to influence the world state in a predictable manner in ways that they don't feel they, as people, are good at, are capable with, or should admit that they are either.
(DIR) Post #B2yHz7bGO4NBbe2aYa by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-02-04T08:01:21Z
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@deinol Have you tried *Fantasy World*? It is a PBTA-derived fantasy kitchen sink RPG in the same notional vein as *Dungeon World*, but I find that the mechanics are expressed a lot more cleanly. The playbooks are a lot tighter and more interesting, and the whole book comes with so much really good content and how-to-run-this advice that does yeoman's work in showing you how to be the World.Now, fairly, it doesn't deliver a fully developed game setting right to your lap, but it is also clear that part of that is offloaded to the players at large and the interests and focuses of their characters.Of the set, I truly love *Fantasy World* and really encourage people who were not really satisfied with *Dungeon World* to check it out. https://unplayablegamesrpg.itch.io/fantasy-world
(DIR) Post #B2yIoWjchDigKTSlYO by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2026-02-04T08:10:43Z
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@deinol For my tastes, the feeling goes the opposite way. They're leaning more into the mechanical, crunchy aspects of the game mechanics and not those which are user-accessible in the sense of being able to change them.I suppose that we'll see what we shall see when *Dungeon World* has finally bared its chest to a breath-holding public, but until then it's largely supposition.